The Guardian Books Podcast

Rebecca Miller investigates the history of Judaism, John Grimwood imagines the origins of fine taste and Wu Ming visit with another novel with a sideways slant on the 16th century

Ian McEwan talks to John Mullan at the Guardian Book Club about his latest novel, Sweet Tooth

Summer's here at last, but what books should you pack for the beach? We round up recommendations and talk to two of this year's hottest authors, George Saunders and Rick Gekoski

Barbara Kingsolver came to the Guardian Review book club to talk about her best known novel, The Poisonwood Bible. She discussed her story of an evangelical American minister taking his wife and four daughters to live as missionaries in Congo, and looked back on her own childhood years in Africa

Michelle de Kretser and Ruth Ozeki talk about novels which span the globe, while Jo Glanville and Evie Wyld discuss a literary world in motion

It's Benjamin Britten's centenary year, and the veteran writer Ronald Blythe remembers the time he spent working for the composer at Aldeburgh, where he met EM Forster and started out on his literary career

Neil Gaiman sends Damien Walter on a tour of Weird London, invites a panel of guests to assess the future of literature and reads his haunting story, Down to a Sunless Sea

We ask the award-winning SF writer Lauren Beukes why she's added a twist of horror to her latest novel, The Shining Girls, while Joe Hill talks about following in the footsteps of his father, Stephen King

Highlights from the awards ceremony as AM Homes wins the women's prize for fiction, plus Mark Brown and Robert McCrum salute the brutal humour of May We Be Forgiven

The writer explains how and why he decided to take on contemporary London in his latest novel

Jenny Colgan and Graeme Simsion reveal the summer's most romantic reads - and we listen in to the uncensored Sons and Lovers, to mark the centenary of its publication

Jenny Colgan and Graeme Simsion reveal the summer's most romantic reads - and we listen in to the uncensored Sons and Lovers, to mark the centenary of its publication

James Salter, the veteran American novelist and short story writer, reads a story by Lydia Davis, winner of the 2013 Man Booker International prize

Geneticist Steve Jones considers the Bible as a science book, while magician turned historian of psychology Peter Lamont demystifies the paranormal

As Sotheby's prepares to auction first editions of books annotated by 50 top authors, curator and antiquarian book-dealer Rick Gekoski explains how he got all the greats to join in - and some of the secrets they reveal